Madison county’s first black lawyer, judge dies at 95

ALTON - Clayton R. Williams, Madison County’s first black lawyer and first black judge, has died. He was 95.

Williams was an associate judge for 14 years. He retired in 1987. He decided to become a lawyer after serving in the Army in the Pacific during World War II.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from Shurtleff College in Alton and later earned a law degree at Lincoln University Law School in St. Louis. He set up a practice at the age of 25. He said in a 1987 interview that he had no shortage of clients, but his clients were short of money.

He served as a public defender in 1966 and was appointed director of the Madison County Legal Services Society (now Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation), which provides legal aid to indigent persons.

He returned to private practice in 1971 and served as an assistant state’s attorney in 1972 and 1973 before being appointed an associate judge in late 1973.

He also served as president of the Alton Branch, NAACP but resigned when he was appointed a judge. In 1961 Williams represented plaintiffs in what may have been the first civil rights case in Madison County.

He represented black people who worked at area bowling alleys but whose rights to use the facilities were restricted or denied because of race. A jury found for the defendants, but the businesses dropped the restrictions. “We lost the battle but won the war,” he said.